ipl-logo

Why I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings?

502 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How did the civil rights movement affect our nation

It is no surprise that “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” has a large amount of cultural history. Maya goes in to explain the racial segregation that was present during her childhood, claiming that she never believed “that whites were really real (Angelou).” This meant that any one person going through that time period may have believed the same, or possibly never even seen a white person before. Her story then states that San Francisco claims to have no racial divide, which they told the truth, but the racism between people still existed. When she did get a little older and moved to a non-segregated city, any experiences with a white person has been negative. (Although rudeness of her classmates, and even teachers, did not discourage Maya and her brother.) Due to living in a city of liberals, from both end of the spectrum, the people started Civil Right’s movement which gave Maya a chance to go out of the American American stereotype. …show more content…

However, the job application didn’t come easy as they would not hire black people, and with the advice of her mother, Maya started a sit-in. This sit-in lasted for two weeks straight, and in the end got her the job at the age of sixteen (WNYC)! “‘I sat there (at the office) for two weeks, every day. And then after two weeks, a man came out of his office and said 'come here.' And he asked me 'why do you want the job?' I said 'I like the uniforms.' And I said 'and I like people.' And so I got the job.’ (WNYC).” Her achievement and sit-in made it easier for the black community to become a streetcar conductor; and her breach of sexism and racism, in her later years, made her an outstanding role model for breaking the mold that was built by the white

Show More
Related
223 Words | 1 Pages

Maya Angelou’s excerpt from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” will imaginatively take a reader away from their deskbound position to envisioning the stage of a play ornamented with fashioned rabbits, buttercups, and daisies, hearing children as they actively perfect their performance, and stimulate the readers’ appetite with the expressive words she uses to describe sweet whiffs of cinnamon and chocolate from the food samples being prepared. From Angelou’s portrayal of the play an individual will be capable of picturing white rabbits crafted from construction paper and cotton balls modelling puffy tails, together with, yellow and pink card board cut outs resembling buttercups and daisies decking a stage. The person who reads this excerpt

Read More
729 Words | 3 Pages

Other than that she was An author, poet , screenwriter, etc. With being African American, Maya had experience with first hand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas, where

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

Maya Angelou published her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the late 1960s to shed light on her personal experiences as a girl growing up in the segregated South. She writes unfiltered depictions of rape and sexual abuse, along with topics such as racism and teenage pregnancy. Her novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings became censored in America in 2002 due to these topics. Regardless of this novel being censored, it holds significant value in the lessons it teaches.

Read More
304 Words | 2 Pages

In “Graduation”, Maya Angelou talks about her graduation experience in her class of 1940. Her essay is mostly based on how African Americans were treated back then. Angelou states that African American schools were ruled under white power. She said that it didn’t matter whether they were smart or not the boys were sent to work and women were to take care of the home duties. Angelou states that during her graduation ceremony white man came to her school to tell them how good the white schools were doing and what new material they were getting and to congratulate the few black athletes that were going to play football.

Read More
862 Words | 4 Pages

In the book “I know why the caged bird sings” young Maya grows up in a very religious town in Arkansas called stamps. Many adults were religious with a passion. One of the reasons was because Christianity helped them deal with adversity because this was in arkansas back in the 1960’s were racism was high and limited blacks right to public speech and freedom of expressing themselves. Maya was surrounded by religious people all the time so she was forced to partake in religious

Read More
1235 Words | 5 Pages

Many people inspired Maya to write, taught her and influenced her writings and her life. She started writing her first book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, when she was around 40 years old. She was on tour around Europe when she met the writer James Baldwin in Paris, and he convinced Maya to write her autobiography, after hearing stories about her childhood. She returned back to the US in order to support Malcolm X’s initiative of the Organization of African American Unity, but shortly after her arrival Malcolm X was assassinated.

Read More
545 Words | 3 Pages

She strived to help many women and African-Americans obtain equality in a country that put down certain people because of their differences.

Read More
842 Words | 4 Pages

When thinking of a historical figure, many imagine a president, king, or general that lead a country to greatness, but never realized some could be the ones who influence the minds of society. Although not thought of as anything, writers and poets hold the key to shaping the society’s mindset without even knowing it. Being a civil rights activist, social activist, and role model for women makes Maya Angelou a historical figure who has made a huge impact in American society and in American history. Born poor and black, she was a childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence. She was a young single mother who had to work at strip clubs for a living.

Read More
906 Words | 4 Pages

She realizes that she must be proud of heritage and never let it go. Tan perception is told to her and this cause makes her not to be valiant. In contrast, Maya Angelou is aware of her situation from the start of the story. She observes a group of African-American men talking big; how Joe is “gone to whip that white boy” (111) and then it becomes quiet. She sees the men how they are insulting the white fighter with each other because they know that are safe.

Read More
1176 Words | 5 Pages

Maya Angelou is a well-known author whose writings are used in ELA classrooms around the United States. Many fans of literature hold her writings in high regard. The article “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” by Francine Prose is about Prose’s belief that American educators should not teach Angelou’s work to American students. Prose published the piece in 1999 in response to Angelou’s rising success and her writings being used to teach ELA. Prose believed that Maya Angelou’s work being used to teach literature was not necessary, as To Kill a Mockingbird was more than sufficient.

Read More
514 Words | 3 Pages

After informing her family of this traumatizing encounter, the perpetrator was hunted down and beaten to death. Maya didn’t speak for the next five years. Maya found joy in singing, dancing, and poetry, after moving to San Francisco in 1940. However, this joy was put on hold after having a son at age 16, and moving to San Diego. Being young and reckless waitress, Maya got tangled in drugs, prostitution, and strip dancing.

Read More
1975 Words | 8 Pages

Maya Angelou worked as a professor at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1991 to 2014. As an African American women, one whose life was full of racial discrimination and gender inequality, she had plenty of experience and wisdom to share with her students. During her time working at the university, she taught a variety of humanities courses such as “World Poetry in Dramatic Performance,” “Race, Politics and Literature,” “African Culture and Impact on U.S.,” and “Race in the Southern Experience” (Wake Forest University,

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

Maya’s experiences throughout her childhood and “adulthood” convey the idea that nobody can dictate someone else’s identity except the person themselves. Maya’s experiences throughout her childhood show the idea that nobody can dictate someone else’s identity except the person themselves. At only eight years old, her mother’s ex-boyfriend molested and raped her. During his trial, Maya lied about what he had done and denied that he’d ever touched her before he actually raped her.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

Income inequality is not new in America but what is new is income inequality on older adults in America. US has one of the most unfair income distributions there is in comparison to other developed worlds. There are policies and programs setup to help the elderly but there are unfortunately many flaws that come with them. A few public assistance provided programs are Medicare, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid. Inequality is starting to be more obvious and it is bringing forth more statistics on the matter.

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

The world is no stranger to oppression. Madness driven from an inferiority complex based on racial stigma. Prohibition of freedom being yet another way to inflate this expanding social divide between the oppressors and the oppressed, between white and black. Within the poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, this concept of social division due to the desire of freedom and the desire to restrict the freedom of others is explored through the implementation of a variety of literary devices: symbolism, metaphors, sudden tone shifts, and a constant underlying allegory. Driven by her own experiences being raised during a time period where segregation and racism were acceptable behavior amongst the masses, Angelou illustrates this problematic normalization of discrimination through the juxtaposition of a free bird to a caged bird to convey the theme of oppression and the hope of freedom brought on by such.

Read More

More about Why I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings?

Related Topics

Open Document